>From: "Economou, Douglas P" 
>To: "'TheGoons@TheGoons.com'" <TheGoons@thegoons.com>
>Subject: December 5th show at the black cat
>Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2003 11:01:16 -0600
>
>I had the "pleasure" of seeing you guys play at the Black Cat. Both a first
>for me.  I could not understand a word you were singing.  Apparently you are
>an anarchy band. I read some of your lyrics on your website.  Good thing. I
>had no idea what you guys stood for.  Well here's my opinion.  You don't
>like this country? Leave.  Cuz I'm sure other countries don't tax or have
>crooked politicians .  What's holding you back?  Your band sucks.
>It's nothing but noise and a fat guy screaming all over the place.  At least
>other anarchy bands like Rage can be understood and sound good.
>
>You don't like the 9-5 thing? Well that's b/c you probably have limited
>education and are not smart enough to hold a real job.  Go ahead and hate
>the country b/c you are all morons and don't want to work.



My deepest and most sincere apologies to you that I didn't have time to respond to you earlier; but needless to say I did finally find time in my busy day for your ridiculous email.

I write most of the band's lyrics and I can say, for sure, that no where in our lyrics or banter have we ever used the word 'anarchy'. My lyrics typically spawn from my experiences and frustrations. Work sucks. Thats why it pays. Sometimes it seems like work is all I do; but the rent has to get paid somehow. What are you? One of Wells-Fargo's sorry bean counters? I'm glad its a fucking hoot for you, but I think we'd like to spend more of our time doing almost anything other than scrapping together rent. I love this country, its my country. But douche-bags like you who think they have the authority to tell me to leave make me sick. You said it was a good thing you didn't know what I stood for. Why? What would you have done? Would you have had a nationalistic temper tantrum? Maybe you would have tried to shut me up? Is that what America is? It occurs to me that even after reading our lyrics you still seem ignorant of what we stand for. So let me fill you in. I can't speak for the rest of my band but I can say that I believe that the American bi-partisan political system has failed us. I believe that greedy rich pigs buy politicians to insure policies that keep them rich and all the rest of us toiling away. I believe that the people of this country deserve to have our tax dollars spent on better education instead of more and more prisons and dropping bombs. I believe that as citizens we all have the right to speak out, disapprove, disagree and act out when necessary. And I believe that in this country no asshole like you is going to tell me to shut up about it! As a person that loves this country I have a hard time swallowing the idea that because everywhere else is fucked I should accept the way things are here. My parents are both South American immigrants and I've visited their home lands several times. I don't want our country to become a third world nation because people like you are willing to turn a blind eye in the name of national pride. I won't accept being ripped off, lied to and sold out by the same people that run around telling me how great this country is even as they try to bleed us dry! What do they know about it? WE ARE AMERICA, MOTHERFUCKER! You, with you're idiotic point of view, me, with my idealistic, self-righteous point of view. Not the liars and thieves that reap the benefits of our hard work, ruin lives manipulating the stock market and corporate accounting, cut educational and health-care spending and mismanage our nation into budget deficit. So while you were sitting around composing your list of people to banish from the country I hope you included some of them along with us.

As far as the rock criticism goes: man, I have to say I'm glad you hate us. You're ignorant and you embrace the status quo and you'd have us do the same: you are the enemy. Whats more you have atrocious grammer and reading comprehension. Really I think the last thing I'd ever want is to count you among our fans. Fuck, I'd go so far as to say I'd break up the band if I thought we were appealing to likes of you. So in closing I have to say that the reality here is that we win and you lose. We got to split your admission fee that Wells-Fargo paid you too do the great super-wanker job you do, AND we got great bullshit email for the hate mail section of our web site, where other people can come to laugh at you 'cus you had to sit through our set. Really you might have been better off if you had just shut the fuck up.